I heard a news report on NPR this morning that was essentially complaining that the 2 finalists in the Boston mayoral election were both white despite the diverse field. They apparently consider the fact that only white candidates got elected an indication that we are still part of what they called “old Boston” (read: racist Boston)

I resent this, and I’ll explain why. The fact that we still analyze the skin color of the voting electorate and the elected indicates that we are still living and fueling an era of racism and prejudice. Two white guys getting nominated as the finalists in this race is NOT a direct indication of racism, it’s an indication that the electorate in Boston picked these two people as their top choices, period.

In this broadcast I also was enraged by this quote by Alejandra St. Guillen, executive director of Oiste, a Latino advocacy group:

“if the Latino vote and the African-American vote and the Asian vote is there, we can demand that the people look like us are into those positions and I think that there is real power in that.”

Why is the assumption present that minority voters will inherently vote for their own race? In the same fashion that I would consider it prejudice to vote a person into office purely based on their skin color, I consider this notion backwards and prejudice as well.

Racism absolutely still exists and should be addressed, but there are circumstances such as this one where I think it is actually hurting the cause to unnecessarily bring race into the picture. We will never entirely get rid of racism in politics unless we stop perpetuating the idea that race should even be factor in elections.

The American people kindly request that you release your tax returns to the public so we can see just what kind of person you really are. There is absolutely no reason why would be keeping these returns private aside from concealing the fact that you have not paid your fair share.

We already know that you have failed to accurately file returns in the past, yet you want us to trust you when you say that your tax returns are accurate. How can we trust that you will accurately uphold fair tax standards when you yourself have not followed these rules in the past? Many of us are aware that existing tax codes allow large corporations such as GE, Verizon and others to pay effectively 0% OR LESS (yes, profiting from taxes) in recent years due to the large loopholes that exist due to crony capitalism. How can we trust you to fix this type of unfairness in the tax code should you gain the presidency.

The truth is, we can’t. The American tax code, especially in the corporate sector, is broken. I personally pay an effective ~30% tax on my earnings, and I guarantee you didn’t pay that percentage of you your exorbitant income last year (proof). Is this considered “fair” to you?

So I urge you, Mr. Romney, to release your taxes to the public so we can see how you really feel about our tax code. Until then, I will base my opinions of you on these assumptions:

-You do not care about the interests and well-being of the lower and middle class.
-You agree with the ability of large corporations and the wealthiest of Americans to pay extremely low rates of income tax.
-You will not do anything to help ease the increasing wealth disparity in America.

For those who have read this blog in the past, sorry I’ve been gone for so long. I’m planning on writing some new posts starting today and keeping up with the blog more now that I have some more free time

So you should all know by now that Osama Bin Laden has been shot and killed during a special operation last night in Pakistan. His whereabouts have been known by a select few in the US military for a while now, and last night the CIA finally pulled the trigger and sent in a team of SEALs to find him and take him out. President Obama officially announced the news last night in a late night broadcast to America, which was a great speech until the last 2 lines when he went all “god,god,god,USA,god” on everyone. But I digress.

Since word of his death has surfaced, Americans have been rejoicing and cheering about how great it is that he is dead. “USA! USA! USA!” they cheer, which is certainly unifying for the people, but to me it seems to be getting a little bit…morbid. Yes, Osama bin Laden was responsible for the death of thousands of innocent people, and yes, killing him was absolutely justified, but some of the comments I’ve seen on Facebook and Twitter lately make us Americans seem more like brutes than anything else.

I won’t lie to you, I was extremely happy and relieved when I first heard the news. Americans have been waiting to hear about the final capture or killing of this one man for almost 10 years now. Yet my short moment of comfort in hearing about it was quickly followed by the realization that this means practically nothing in the long run. Be honest, do you really think this will stop more terrorist organizations from forming? Do you really think Osama Bin Laden was so special that he cannot be replaced by some other crazy individual somewhere else in the world? The answer is no, there really was nothing special about Osama Bin Laden.

Regardless, I am quite happy that this giant hide-and-seek match has finally ended and we can stop throwing senseless amounts of money at it. I sincerely hope that all of our troops will be sent home now that our primary target has been eliminated. But do you think that’s actually going to happen? Yeah… me neither.